--- title: "FOP Website Hack Highlights Anti-Police Sentiment" id: "31879" type: "post" slug: "fop-website-hack-highlights-anti-police-sentiment" published_at: "2016-01-30T03:26:25+00:00" modified_at: "2026-11-09T16:47:47+00:00" url: "https://associationsnow.com/2016/01/30/fop-website-hack-highlights-anti-police-sentiment/" markdown_url: "https://associationsnow.com/2016/01/30/fop-website-hack-highlights-anti-police-sentiment.md" excerpt: "The attack, targeting the online assets and private files of the major police group, appears to have been driven by a wave of negative sentiment towards law enforcement. The group says that the FBI is involved in the recovery efforts." taxonomy_category: - "Ethics" taxonomy_post_tag: - "AssociationsNow" - "cybersecurity" - "Data Breach" - "Law Enforcement" - "Technology" taxonomy_content_format: - "Article" taxonomy_role: - "Association CEO / Executive Director" - "Executive Team" taxonomy_persona: - "Association Professionals" --- [Home](https://associationsnow.com/) » [Articles](https://associationsnow.com/format/article/) » FOP Website Hack Highlights Anti-Police Sentiment *“I believe the police should have corruption exposed as all other places should also have wrongdoing exposed when they are in a public office. However, the information should not be used to attack the police; it should be used to help them address their problems and correct them.”* The sentiment above, shared by Thomas White, [a British security expert that calls himself Cthulhu online (opens in a new tab)](https://www.thecthulhu.com/fraternal-order-of-police-data-dump/) , appears to have been the driving force behind a data dump affecting the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The leak—[which the Guardian reports (opens in a new tab)](http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/fraternal-order-of-police-hacked-fbi-investigation-data-servers?CMP=fb_us) uncovered an array of messages critical of the Obama administration from the site’s online forum—has FOP working to figure out what happened, as well as how to limit the blowback from the “sophisticated” leak, which apparently involved 2.5 gigabytes of the organization’s data. The group says that the FBI is assisting them in investigating the incident. ### How Much Data Was Stolen? The amount of data taken is a point of contention: White claims he was anonymously given more than 18 terabytes of FOP data, most of which he’s yet to release. FOP denies it had that much data but isn’t taking any chances. “They have however [breached] all of our records and therefore we have shut down access to our entire site,” National FOP President Chuck Canterbury said, [according to a Facebook statement shared (opens in a new tab)](https://www.facebook.com/FOPFLStateLodge/posts/550539565110188) by the FOP’s Florida chapter. “We have engaged professionals to identify all the necessary steps we need to take to put our system back online and it may take several days.” Perhaps the most controversial data acquired in the attack, according to the *Guardian*, was a series of contracts between law enforcement offices and local FOP groups. Critics of the group say that such contracts protect officers accused of aggressive police activity. FOP, however, denies that the contracts were hidden; Canterbury says that they are bargaining contracts that “are all available on the open web.” While White denies that he was responsible for the hack, he has a recent history of assisting with wide-reaching data dumps. [Motherboard reports (opens in a new tab)](http://motherboard.vice.com/read/us-police-organisation-hacked-documents-posted-online-fraternal-order-of-police) that he helped the Italian company Hacking Team release data from hacks involving Ashley Madison and Patreon. ### Associations Feel Pain of Hacks In recent years, a wide variety of associations and other groups have been involved in hacking incidents. The 2014 Sony hack, for example, [focused attention on the Motion Picture Association of America](http://associationsnow.com/2015/02/sony-hack-mpaa-restructuring/) , in part because of the association’s initial lack of action, and Google used some of the hacked documents to [criticize MPAA’s anti-piracy policy (opens in a new tab)](http://deadline.com/2014/12/google-mpaa-studios-censorship-piracy-1201329765/) . And last year, the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics was targeted in a data breach that affected [an estimated 600,000 to 700,000 nonprofit organizations](http://associationsnow.com/2015/02/urban-institutes-form-990-online-filing-system-hacked/) . (Stockbyte/Thinkstock) [Ernie Smith](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Ernie Smith is a former senior editor for Associations Now. [More articles by this author](https://associationsnow.com/author/ernie-smith/) Tags: [#cybersecurity](https://associationsnow.com/tag/cybersecurity/) [#Data Breach](https://associationsnow.com/tag/data-breach/) [#Law Enforcement](https://associationsnow.com/tag/law-enforcement/) [#Technology](https://associationsnow.com/tag/technology/) **Stay Informed** [Subscribe to our free newsletter](https://associationsnow.com/newsletter/) , *Associations Now Daily News*, to find out what’s happening in the association world every business day. ## You Might Like - [PodcastSecuring Identity: What Associations Need to Know About Verifiable CredentialsJune 25, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/06/25/securing-identity-what-associations-need-to-know-about-verifiable-credentials/) - [PodcastAssociations Now Presents: Beyond the Tech Stack: How AI Is Changing the Association PlaybookOctober 29, 2026](https://associationsnow.com/2026/10/29/associations-now-presents-beyond-the-tech-stack-how-ai-is-changing-the-association-playbook/) - [TemplateMembers onlyEthics Toolkit for AssociationsMarch 31, 2025](https://associationsnow.com/2025/03/31/ethics-toolkit-for-associations/) - [ArticleDo You Have These Bad Password Habits?October 8, 2019](https://associationsnow.com/2019/10/08/do-you-have-these-bad-password-habits/) ## Comments **Comments are for ASAE members.** [Learn more about comments on this site.](https://associationsnow.com/comments/) [Log in](https://associationsnow.com/login?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fassociationsnow.com%2F2016%2F01%2F30%2Ffop-website-hack-highlights-anti-police-sentiment%2F%23comments) to your member account or [join ASAE](https://my.asaecenter.org/select-a-membership-type/) !